I have a Yaesu FT-60 HT with an external microphone (great rig). The problem is that the connector plugging into the HT from the mic. sometimes disconnects when I pick up the microphone when using it as a mobile unit and I have to plug it back in again.
Is there a way to keep the mic. connector from unplugging from the HT ?
All advice is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Ray KC1EDJ
It’s possible you’re not seating the plug fully into the jack on the radio. It should fit fairly snugly. Is your hand mic Yaesu branded or is it made by a third party manufacturer? If it’s third party, it’s possible the plug is out of tolerance (especially if the mic is Chinese) and doesn’t fit well in the jack.
If all else fails, a heavy rubber band strapped around the radio and the plug could help. Another possible solution is to use a headset, such as the Heil HTH-Y. This headset is single sided, which means it’s probably legal to use in a vehicle in most states and it has a PTT button right on the cord.
http://www.heilsound.com/amateur/products/headsets/handie-talkie-headset-hth
The mic that I have is a Yaesu brand mic.
What does the plug on the end of the mic cable look like. Is it straight or a right angle plug? Does it have threads on it?
Threads? It’s just the usual 3.5/2.5 type. Mine pull out frequently too. That said, Icom, Yaesu and others were using virtually the same design in the 70s, and they didn’t pull out so often simply because the cable was soft, floppy and had poor memory. Now the cables have advanced, plastics wise, they don’t become 8ft long with no coils any longer, like the Icoms in particular did, and most are too short. So the springiness when the cable is trying to fight you to return to the coiled up state is stronger than the socket springs can provide. You actually need quite a lot of effort to pull out the plugs, don’t you - but pulling the mic towards your mouth is more, and out it pings. I don’t find attaching the thing more permanently helps that much because then it’s not uncommon for the radio to propel itself towards your face, when it pulls away from what it was sitting on!
I wish they’d just make the old cables again.
Not all Yaesu HT hand mics are created equal. There are a couple of different varieties depending on which radio they’re intended for. Here are two:
The top one is the right angle plug intended for the FT-60. It’s a right angle because the jack is on the side of the radio. The bottom plug with the threads and O-ring is for the FT-270. The 270 is waterproof and the threads and O-ring ensure that it remains waterproof when a hand mic is used. The jack is on the top of a FT-270.
The primary purpose of a hand mic is to make communicating easier by having a speaker closer to the user’s ear when the radio is worn on the belt and also allows the user to communicate without having to remove the radio from the belt. i don’t know what you guys are doing to cause the plug to pull out of the radio. I tried my FT-60 and stretched the cord to its full extension and it didn’t pull out of the radio. Yes, if you pull on the cord at a right angle to the radio, it’s going to pull out, but this is not how it’s designed to be used and you run the risk of breaking the conductors at the body of the plug.
This solves the problem?
The name in the display is just a crazy coincidence, but neat!
It would solve the problem, but a better place for that retaining clip would be on the antenna, not the frequency selection knob. A pull on the mic cord could accidentally change the frequency or memory channel. Unless, of course, you use the keypad lock settings to lock that knob as well.